[pork99]

It seems that the recent horrific events in the US have lead to a boom in Net Meetings, Video Conferencing, (and I suppose, god help us, "Webinars") as people avoid flying, see;

http://www.wired.com/news/business/0,1367,46954,00.html

and decentralising of data storage

http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1004-200-7208169.html

If the current crisis continues for any extended period, I hope it will not, the lack of affordable broadband risks putting Irish SMEs at even greater disadvantage.

[R. Daneel Olivaw]

Originally posted by pork99

If the current crisis continues for any extended period, I hope it will not, the lack of affordable broadband risks putting Irish SMEs at even greater disadvantage.

It is definitely a big hurdle that Irish companies and consumers have to get over....and unneccessary.

The current tech meltdown could see, like already this week, air flight bookings reduced, as well. Those businesses will need inexpensive communications, as their neibhours in UK, Germany, the whole EU and US have, or else they will just go out of business with yearly bills of £20,000+ for even basic 128k leased line type installations (which still isn't good enough for telecomms).

And home users? The people who *buy* the stuff? Well, without broadband, you won't stay online for very long, you won't browse to those business sites and see if they have stuff to sell. You will prob stick to the US sites as they are more guaranteed to not have closed down.

Ireland needs consumer spending to avoid a recession. The spending must be on Irish-based business, because all those foreign ones will be pulling out if anything looks dodgy.

Eircom are single-handedly bringing about consumer and business recession which could be avoided. Fine the ****ers for screwing up the country. I would be online all the time, I would order over the net if I could download the 50MB movie of the product, I would buy from Tesco's online supermarket, whatever......but over 56k I'll stick to email, Slashdot, and Sky Digital (which for all thigns, is cheap and reliable)(hmmm, digital....I wonder if they could get broadband on it).

[sceptre]

Good comments from Azimov boy above.

[Boston]

Originally posted by R. Daneel Olivaw
but over 56k I'll stick to email, Slashdot, and Sky Digital (which for all thigns, is cheap and reliable)(hmmm, digital....I wonder if they could get broadband on it).

as far as i know, they are trialing something in the west somewere, and all new set top boxs will include high speed modems, not like the 28k ones they have now.

Allso they are in talks with eircom about something or other

[R. Daneel Olivaw]

That's interesting. If it was two-way it would be better. Undoubedtly they are in "talks" if anything to secure a cheap flat rate upload only phone connection.

But of course Eircom will have none of it. Honestly, with the cap, satelliet access, even for £100+/month, is better value. So the ping would suck, I can live with that, if I can have permanent 400kbps 24/7 connection.